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Hermits (Three-fourths cup of sugar)
Three-fourths cup of sugar, fill up with molasses; one egg and the yolk of another, two cups flour, one-half cup shortening, three tablespoons sour milk, one teaspoon soda, one-half teaspoon of cinnamon, one-half teaspoon of cloves, one-half cup of raisins.
— Mrs. H. T. Jones
A village drop-cookie receipt written for a cook who already knew what hermits were: no oven temperature, no baking time, no method at all. Everything below is what the original assumes.
- "Fill up with molasses"This is a single-cup measurement. Put sugar into a one-cup measure to the three-quarter mark, then pour molasses in until the cup is full — about 1/4 cup molasses. Do not read it as a cup of sugar plus a cup of molasses.
- ShorteningIn village cookery of this period this means butter, lard, or a mix rather than modern vegetable shortening. Vegetable shortening will work, though butter is likely closer to the intent.
- Sour milk and sodaSour milk was milk left to clabber; use buttermilk, or milk soured with a few drops of vinegar (the recipe calls for only three tablespoons). The soda reacts with both the sour milk and the acid in the molasses. Sift it with the flour so it does not streak.
- Oven and timeThe receipt gives neither temperature nor time. A moderate oven, around 350F, for roughly 10 to 12 minutes suits drop cookies of this kind; bake until the edges are set and the centres still look slightly soft. Molasses doughs brown fast, so judge by the edge rather than the colour of the top.
- The dough will be stiffTwo cups of flour to this much fat and so little liquid gives a thick, almost paste-like dough. That is correct — drop it in rough spoonfuls two inches apart. Do not thin it with extra milk or the cookies will spread into a sheet.
- RaisinsChop them coarsely so they distribute through a stiff dough; tossing them with a spoonful of the measured flour helps keep them from clumping.
- SaltOmitted, as it often is in receipts of this kind. Add a quarter teaspoon if using unsalted butter.
- YieldRoughly two dozen cookies of ordinary size. Molasses keeps them moist, and they store well for several days in a tin.
Hermits are a New England spice cookie that spread through community and church cookbooks in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and this version is typical of the type: molasses, sour milk, soda, cinnamon and cloves, raisins, and no instructions, because every contributor to such a book expected her neighbors to know how a drop cookie was handled. The name's origin is not documented; it is variously said to refer to the cookies' keeping quality, which suited them to travel and to lunch pails, or to their dark, plain, brown appearance. What is verifiable is the economy of the formula — molasses substituting for part of the sugar, sour milk rescued rather than discarded, one whole egg and a spare yolk.